Damper set up

Andy at GD will set up your new GD suspension at no additional cost. My car is a Euro so should only need the dampers setting, as the rest is set as part of the rolling chassis build. The car drives well now, but does 'float' a little over crests in the road and also feels a little unstable particularly at speed on the motorway, which does not instil total confidence when pushing on. The dampers (or shockers) control oscillation of the springs and keep the tyres in contact with the road. So this is what I needed to sort out to address the minor handling issues.

I didn't really want to take the car to the factory, as it is a 2.5 hour drive each way and I have no weather gear to combat the vaguaries of the British summer. A quick call to Andy and he explained the way to adjust the dampers and that it should correct the issues above. The dampers are set using just one knob for both the compression and rebound. If I made a pigs ear out of it, there is no real harm done as it can be corrected!

Andy knows the feel of the cars and the changes needed to correct the symptoms. It also depend on the weight of the driver, passenger and junk/tools etc carried in the boot (if a lot of weight in the boot you may need more clicks at the rear). He suggested that damper settings of around 4-6 clicks clockwise are likely to be about right, but that I may need to amend this to my preference. No change is required to the spring rates or toe. However, for the track more clicks may be required e.g 12/13!

The first job is to set the ride height. Mine is set to clear local speed bumps (see a previous post).

Collar for ride adjustment can be seen here

This is achieved by adjusting the collars up (using a C spanner) at the bottom of the springs.

The lower the car the less it will roll in corners (lowers the centre of gravity) and the better it will handle, but the car is more likely to come into contact with speed humps (legal limit for a speed bump on a public road is 4" I think) or raised road surfaces/metalwork - so you have been warned!

Next I needed to back off all four dampers fully (they were set to 5 clicks at the factory) - turning the knurled knob fully anti-clockwise, so that the knob will not turn any further (don't force it). You should be able to do this with the wheels on. The knobs are at the bottom of the dampers - on the inside at the front and on the leading edge at the rear.

Front nearside damper knurled knob (faces away from wheel)

Rear nearside damper knob (faces front of car)

Then turn the knob, say 6 clicks clockwise (which is one full rotation of the knob). For road use/touring you do not want the car to be too stiff or it will be uncomfortable and thump over every road imperfection. I set mine to 6 clicks. With 7 clicks it handled well but was a tad too hard. If you have a roll bar fitted the setting is likely to vary

Now the good bit. Once adjusted, test the car on your favourite road 😆. If it is not quite right, further adjustments can be made. Extra clicks will firm up the dampers, backing it off will reduce the damping effect. Note, this is not the spring rate, but the speed at which the dampers move and allow the car to roll in corners, control the car over undulations and dive (or not) under braking.

New wheel!

Well I have finally got round to getting a slightly bigger steering wheel. I have gone for a 14" (previously a 13") premium grade leather traditional style, with nicely polished and radiused edged spokes. The wheel is flat, rather than semi-dished and has a slightly thicker rim and was bought from Scarborough Racing Developments.

The only issue was that it was a 9 hole fixing and the previous wheel was a 6 hole fitting. The advice was to temporarily fix the wheel with 3 bolts through the holes that still lined up, then drill the remaining 6 holes through the boss. The steering wheel was then fixed with the 9 countersunk fixings screws, washers and nylocs provided, putting the central circular ring supplied in place. An easy upgrade!

New steering wheel fixed

A little more progress!

I only managed a couple of hours in the garage this afternoon, but nevertheless a small amount of progress.

Speed sensor

Tightened the bolt that I forgot yesterday! I had only put it in finger tight, whilst I sorted out the wires. An important, but small job, to avoid the sensor falling out!

Handbrake

I finished off the handbrake too. Tied in the cable to the chassis.

Tie wrapped handbrake cable

Then siliconed around the grommet to avoid water ingress.

Under boot supports

On the Euro there are two plates that are fitted under the rear of the chassis. These help to take the extra weight that you may put in the boot. There are three rivnuts on each side for this purpose.

Three rivnuts on rear underside of chassis

First two pieces of self adhesive sponge rubber are fitted to each of the plates. The plates are then bolted in place and tightened, squashing the rubber.

Boot support plate

I managed to cross thread one of the rivnuts on the nearside, so now the it turns in the chassis rail. I will need to work out how to get the bolt out! But that is for another day.

Fuel tank

Sponge rubber was stuck to the fuel tank - two strips along the back and one underneath. I also added sound deadening sheets to reduce the chance of hearing fuel sloshing around.

Fuel tank with sponge rubber and sound deadening panels

Fixing the body

Air filter and radiator frame

Before the body was bolted up, the air filter and radiator frame had to be secured in place. Getting the bits in place was a challenge. Ideally you should do this whilst you have help. I didn't!

The body needed lifting up a bit at the front to create some space. Blocks of wood, some cloth to pad it out and a trolley jack came in handy. Once I had lifted the body about a couple of inches, the radiator frame was fed in through the radiator opening and secured in place with the four bolts.

I fed the filter in through the radiator aperture, then attached the stainless steel tube from the engine compartment. To get the filter fitted I slid the large hoses back onto the stainless steel tube, then moved them forward onto the filter and throttle. This allowed the tube to be connected between the filter and the throttle easily.

Air filter tube attached to throttle and filter

The air filter is simply held in place with the silicone tubes, clips and the body!

Fixing the body

Starting with the fixings nearest to the engine and front bulkhead, the body was jiggled to pull them together so that there was no gap between the bulkhead and the mounting. Initially this was a 5+ mm gap.

Gap between mounting and bulkhead

To achieve this a sturdy piece of wood was used as a lever between the rear wheel arch (inside) and the tyre. I had Matthew at the front to pull the shell forward at the same time. The body shell was jacked up to help align the holes.

Gap between mounting and bulkhead closed

Whilst keeping pressure on the wooden lever, the greased bolt, spring and penny washer was inserted into the hole and tightened. Not a one person job and a lot easier to write about than do! This was repeated at the other side.

Body bolted to chassis at bulkhead

The bolts must not go through the mount to touch the chassis, otherwise you may get squeaking when it is driven. Not something a GD should do! Here I shortened the bolts by a millimeter or two. An alternative is to add another washer.

Other holes required a little easing/elongating with the Dremel to allow the bolts to fit easily. I had to stand in the body to seat the shell on the mountings in some cases. In others, I had to jack up the body a little.

Two bolts shown in place

Six bolts were fixed through the body holes into the mountings on the chassis around the transmission tunnel (one turned the insert on the mounting). A further four secured the inner wings to the chassis (one I couldn't get to bite at all). Care was taken not to get any debris into the threaded part of the mounting where these had to be enlarged. Here a vacuum cleaner was used at the same time to clear any debris. If any GRP dust had been allowed to get in the threads, then the bolt may have seized and caused the centre insert to turn in the mounting (off side transmission tunnel bolt?) and would have stopped the bolt being tightened.

The last two bolts were in the boot and fitted into the mountings on the rear of the chassis. Here holes were not pre-drilled, so had to be located and then drilled. This is where the measurements marked in the boot, prior to lifting on the body, came into their own. The mounting holes were located by drilling small pilot holes 25 mm up from the boot floor on the pre-marked lines. Once I knew that  these were at the correct location, they were opened out to 8 mm and penny washers added to pack out the small gap (1 on the offside and 2 on the nearside).

The two mounting bolts in the boot

When all the remaining bolts were inserted and fitted freely, then they were tightened up.

I now have 10 out of the 12 bolts in place, however I need to sort out the other two. Hopefully it is not a body off job to sort out!

Cobra body on!

After spending an hour helping Keith Akerman fit his GD 427 body today with a load of friends from the Northern Cobra Club, Simon Smith suggested that they come down to my house and help fit my body (about 30 mins drive from Keith's). On arriving home it was snowing and very windy, not the best time to fit a sportscar body! But without their help I could not have got the body on - a great help, thanks to all of you.

A great crowd from the Northern Cobra Club helped me get the body on

Luckily, I had prepared the chassis and body, so that all the difficult jobs that I could do before the two parts (chassis and body) were married had been done.

Andy from GD had given me some tips and the first hand experience with Keith's helped a lot. First I had lightly rubbed down the mountings and filed the top edge off the middle mounting. Then I lubricated all the mountings with Vaseline. I removed the bonnet to make the body a bit lighter.

Andy had recommended that I have someone at each corner and someone to guide the process (me). In the end I had plenty of helpers. The body was rolled outside the garage and then the chassis was moved out then back into the centre of the garage.

Body outside

Chassis in centre of garage

Next the guys carried the body back into the garage over the chassis.

Body being carried into garage

The trick was to get the body high enough over the chassis, then lower it down equally at either side.

At the front the inner wings tend to be flexed slightly inward (hence my head in the radiator slot!), so this area needed help to get them over the chassis. Once the body was on the chassis, it had to be wiggled forwards towards the engine. The body needed to sit snuggly up against the transmission tunnel mountings where the tunnel flairs outwards, so that the front transmission tunnel bolts could be encouraged into place.

I have a car now!

Andy had emphasised that the bolts should be greased and should go in easily. If I didn't take note of this the bolts could seize in the mounts or the bolt could twist the thread out of the rubber mount. This will be left until another day - now it is a case of stand back and admire!

Small but important jobs

Loads of small jobs to do. Feels great to knock them off the list!

Coil packs

Re-fitted the plug leads and coil packs today. I have fixed the brackets to the rocker covers using M6 16 mm button head screws. The holes in the rocker covers that were not used had M6 12 mm button heads inserted to finish them off.

Coils and plug leads fitted

Exhaust clamps

I was not happy with the front and middle exhaust clamps. They hung down too low and so would reduce ground clearance and the exposed threads were an invitation to make contact with the road. Even if I twisted them around, I couldn't gain much ground clearance without coming into contact with the chassis. As we have quite high speed bumps on our road (higher than the legal limit of 4"), I needed to make sure that the ground clearance was as high as possible.

Standard brackets hang down too far

I bought four Mikalor exhaust clamps from Westfield Fasteners to replace the standard clamps. Not cheap at £18 plus p&p, but worth the outlay. The photo above shows the before view and below shows the after views.

Almost flat clamps (Mikalor)

Front clamps fitted

Gearbox mount bolts

Replaced the two bolts gearbox mount bolts with 10.9 grade bolts. The others had lost there edge from being put in, thread locked and taken out a few times.

New gearbox mount bolts

Brace bars and cooling

I refitted the front brace bars, the radiator support frame and the radiator. This should have been really easy, but for some reason the bolts took some inserting in the brace bars, before fixing with nyloc nuts.

Brace bars, radiator support frame and radiator in place

Once the radiator support frame was in place, I trial fitted the header tank and hoses. This was an easy job and very intuitive. I have used black silicone hoses with W4 clamps (stainless steel). I replaced the supplied air intake zinc plated clamps with four 100 mm W4 clamps. The radiator will have to come off for the fan to be fitted.

Hoses and header tank trial fitted

Idler pulley

The idler pulley is not used on the GD, so I removed the bracket and pulley.

Idler pulley on right

Idler pulley removed

Transmission tunnel cover

The transmission tunnel cover needed a hole cutting out for the gear shifter. First I marked this out by measuring the position of the shifter, then drawing a circle 65 mm in diameter. My chassis is a Euro, so the sponge rubber was in place, therefore the hole was cut from the bottom side of the panel.

Put away the Dremel for this job. I broke a cutting bit. The hole was cut out using a jig saw and then tidied up with a half round file.

Hole cut in transmission tunnel cover

Clutch hydraulics

A smear of Loctite 572 was applied to the clutch pipe connectors (there are four surfaces to be treated) before they were connected to the block. The block was dismantled to allow the pipe connectors to be nipped up. The rigid brake pipes from the chassis were already in place.

From left to right clutch bleed, clutch feed, brake pipes x 2 

The two braided clutch pipes were strapped together with a couple of plastic tie wraps.

So a load of easy/small jobs done and out of the way.

Installing the engine and gearbox

Attaching gearbox to engine

The hydraulic pipes were attached to the release bearing (see photo below), using a small amount of Loctite 572 on to the tapered surface, making sure not to get any in the pipes. Do not apply top the thread.

The end of the gearbox output shaft was lubricated with a little grease. Using the engine hoist and a couple of slings, the gearbox and bell housing were offered up to the engine.

Engine and gearbox being aligned

The shaft went through the clutch plate and entered the spigot bearing. Making sure that the shaft was lined up, the bell housing was then twisted a little and pushed home over the locating pegs. The bell housing was then bolted up to the engine block using high tensile bolts and torqued to 37 ft lb. Thread lock was applied to these bolts before tightening.

Gearbox mount

The gearbox mounting was fixed to the gearbox tail with two high tensile bolts and thread lock used.

Gearbox mount in place

After painting the mounting bracket with POR 15, it was loosely fitted to the chassis with high tensile bolts and nyloc nuts. This allows a small amount of movement in order to line up the gearbox mounting bolts with the plate. 

After fitting the gearbox, bell housing and the engine together, it was time to put the unit in to the chassis.

Fitting the unit in to the chassis

To get the unit in easier, I took off the radiator support frame and the two removable cross member from the front of the chassis (the top brace and the diagonal).

Removable cross brace (top right) and diagonal brace

Radiator support frame and cross-braces removed from front of chassis

The engine mounting adaptor plates had been fitted to the engine earlier, but the rubber mounts were removed after the trial fit. Each mount was greased, after removing the 'bump', to deter rust. These were put to one side.

I also put the box in to first gear to stop it moving when fitting the prop shaft. At the same time I removed the gear shift mechanism from the tail of the gearbox by taking out the six bolts and gently prising off the plate. The remaining silicone was removed at this stage.

Gear shifter removed

Now I enlisted help to get the unit in to the chassis, in the form of son-in-law Matthew.

Two slings were attached to the hoist after feeding them under the engine and bell housing. I couldn't have done this task on my own, not enough hands!

Using the hoist and gently moving the chassis, we manoeuvred the assembly in to place. A careful stepped motion (i.e. lower, push in, lower etc) was used on the hoist to get the assembly into the chassis. The LS6 engine has the batwing sump and this went under the engine mounts on the chassis. The prop shaft was inserted in to the tail of the gearbox, lubricating the gearbox seal with the gearbox oil.

Engine and gearbox unit on the hoist

Matthew aligning the prop shaft

After a lot of jiggling, the unit was in place. The engine mounts were then slid in to place, over the chassis mounting points. The long bolt and nut were used to secure the mount to the chassis. The three supplied hex set screws were then inserted through the mounting in to each adaptor plate, after a bit more engine jiggling, using thread lock and tightened by hand.

The four bolts and nuts were used to secure the gearbox mounting bracket, after elongating the two mount holes. The two high tensile bolts were then used to secure the gearbox mount to the bracket.

All the bolts were finally tightened once the assembly was in place.

Engine fully fitted

Another view of the engine and gearbox in place

The whole process took two of us about five hours!

So now I have some space in the garage, after moving the engine, bell housing and gearbox.

Cobra chassis here

Today I collected the rolling Euro chassis and various other parts related to the engine from GD. It was over a month later than I expected, partly due to supplier issues. However, I still had a few things to do on the body, so time was not wasted.

I have had AP brakes fitted, along with Pagid brake pads, as I wanted the thing to stop. I know it will go, with 480 bhp it should! My previous experience with Pagid Blue pads was brilliant. They are not cheap, but they worked from cold, on track and on the road. Worth the investment.

Chassis being strapped on to trailer at GD

Chassis on trailer outside GD

I collected the radiator, headers (manifolds to us English), the exhaust, the air intake, various fuel system parts, engine mounts, hoses, steering shaft, drive belt etc. So a big bill (it also included the wheels and carpets).

Some other cars/shells that were at the works today. The red one in particular looked awesome. Black base, maroon red, with a glitter lacquer on top and silver stripes. Yummy!

Cobra chassis is born

Steve Hughes picked up his GD427 body and parts today. He saw my Euro chassis being prepared and took photos. I decided to have it powder coated in black. So here it is before it is kitted out as a rolling chassis by GD!

View from the front

View from the rear

Tyres and stoneguards fitted!

Tyres

I had Michelin Pilot Super Sport tyres fitted at home today. 245/40/ZR18Y at the front and 275/40/ZR18Y at the rear.

The wheels were delivered to my house directly from Image, although I had ordered via Gardner Douglas. This was no more expensive than ordering direct from the manufacturer, so well done GD. Having them fitted on the drive saved me having to take the wheels to a fitter and also having to wait around at a fitters place, kicking my heels.

I used "tyresonthedrive.com", they were competitive on price and fitted the tyres and balanced them at home.  I could have bought just the tyres cheaper, but then I would have had fitting and balancing costs, plus fuel to get to a fitter and all the hanging about. So in the end it would have cost me more.

An email in the morning reminded me that the tyres would be fitted today. The fitter (James) arrived on time as promised, in his van with electric fitting and balancing on board.

Tyresonthedrive - tyres being fitted

The centre nut cover and spinner was removed from each wheel first. The tyres were fitted without any fuss in about an hour and paid for at that point. Now if all services were that good!

Tyres fitted

Now I just need to remember to take them to GD when I collect the chassis (this looks to be delayed a bit at the powder coaters according to Andy).

Stone guards

Black stone guards contrast nicely with the white body. Black was not only chosen due to the contrast, but I know from experience that the Caterham's stainless guards were wrecked within a few weeks due to stone chips. Carbon fibre are available, but the cost was more than I wanted to pay and I couldn't find proof that they lasted much longer. That left GRP which can be rubbed down, filled and polished back to new if required.

Stone guard and rubber U channel strip

Black rubber U-channel edging was fitted around each stone-guard. The guards were fitted with a black rivet in the corner nearest the body. A hole was drilled in the corner closest to the body to accept the rivet. Then two black self tapping screws were used to fix each guard to the wheel arch return.

Stone guard fixed in place

The wheel arch was then dressed back to the stone guard, so that there was no white showing. How good does that look?

Can't wait for the chassis now!